I. Tales of the Jungle 13
1 A Child of the Woods 15
2 The Enchanted Mountain 17
3 The Spirit-Guarded Cave 20
4 The Mountain Spirits and the Stone Mortars 23
II. Fables from the Forest 25
1 Right and Might 27
2 Why the Lip of the Elephant Droops 29
3 How a Dead Tiger Killed the Princess 32
4 The Monkeys and the Crabs 33
III. Nature's Riddles and their Answers 35
1 The Man in the Moon 37
2 The Origin of Lightning 38
3 Why the Parrot and the Minor Bird but
Echo the Words of Man 41
4 The Fatherless Birds 44
IV. Romance and Tragedy 47
1 The Lovers' Leap 49
2 The Faithful Husband 51
3 The Faithful Wife 57
4 An Unexpected Issue 60
V. Temples and Priests 63
1 The Giants' Mountain and the Temple 65
2 Cheating the Priest 67
3 The Disappointed Priest 69
4 The Greedy Priest 71
5 The Ambitious Priest 73
VI. Moderation and Greed 75
1 The Wizard and the Beggar 77
2 A Covetous Neighbor 80
3 A Lazy Man's Plot 83
4 The Ungrateful Fisherman 84
5 The Legend of the Rice 85
VII. Parables and Proverbs 87
1 "One Woman, in Deceit and Craft,
is More than a Match for Eight Men" 89
2 "The Wisest Man of a Small Village
is Not Equal in Wisdom to a Boy
of the City Streets" 93
3 "To Aid Beast is Merit;
to Aid Man is But Vanity" 95
VIII. The Gods Know and the Gods Reward 99
1 Love's Secrets 101
2 Poison-Mouth 103
3 Strife and Peace 105
4 The Widow's Punishment 107
5 Honesty Rewarded 109
6 The Justice of In Ta Pome 111
IX. Wonders of Wisdom 113
1 The Words of Untold Value 115
2 A Wise Philosopher 119
3 The Boys Who Were Not Appreciated 122
4 The Magic Well 126
X. Strange Fortunes of Strange People 129
1 The Fortunes of Ai Powlo 131
2 The Fortunes of a Lazy Beggar 135
3 The Misfortunes of Paw Yan 139
4 An Unfortunate Shot 141
XI. Stories Gone Astray 143
1 The Blind Man 145
2 "Heads, I Win. Tails, You Lose" 148
3 The Great Boaster 149
4 A Clever Thief 151
5 Eyeless-Needle, Rotten-Egg, Rotten-Banana,
Old-Fish and Broken-Pestle 152
List of Illustrations.
A Group of Laos Girls _Frontispiece_
Types of the Laos People _Facing page_ 15
A Laos Forest-stream " " 28
The Laos Governor's Wife at her Embroidery Frame " " 57
A Group of Buddhist Priests }
The Interior of a Buddhist Temple } " " 66
Monastery Grounds at Chieng Tung, Laos " " 72
At Work in the Rice Fields " " 86
The "Chow" and his Palace " " 96
Laos Feast }
A Street in a Laos Town } " " 136
I
Tales of the Jungle
[Illustration: Types of the Laos People]